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Friday, December 19, 2008

Inspiring Young Writers

I picked up this story on Publisher's Marketplace's Automat and had to share.

A teacher in Provo started his own online publishing business focusing on schools and educators to allow schools to cheaply publish the works of their students.

What a great idea!

There are other online self-publishing businesses, but they were cost-prohibitive for schools, students and teachers to take advantage of. But with prices starting at $7.95/book, www.mightyauthors.com puts publishing easily in their reach. The students get really excited when a work of theirs shows up in the school library or on a classroom's bookshelf, and the kids are checking out each other's books. So exciting!

I'm close to 750pp into PILLARS OF THE EARTH now, and it's funny; even though there are 200+ pages yet to go, I can feel the tempo of the story shifting. The plot has had a steady, climbing arc, and even with enough yet to go that it could be a novel in itself, the various threads are coming to fruition and mysteries are resolving and things are starting to settle into place. Mary Gentle's ASH: A SECRET HISTORY literally arrived on my doorstep today from England, and at over 1,000 pages I've got lots more hand cramps ahead of me, but I can't wait to dive into it.

And my own writing? Still simmering. I've thought of other things that need to be corrected. I've had a ton of work show up in the last few weeks, which is a very good thing. I'm still planning how to approach such extensive revisions without accidentally deconstructing the whole book. I received another rejection yesterday from an agent. Just another confirmation that I really need to rework this manuscript. I'm thinking next month, if work will give me a break, I'll be able to get back into it again. Fingers crossed.